LAS CRUCES — The Elephant Butte Irrigation District board in a meeting this week increased the growing season's water allotment for farmers in southern Sierra County and Doña Ana County.

The board boosted the allotment from 8 acre-inches per irrigable acre — an amount set in late March — up to 12 acre-inches per acre — or 1 acre-foot per acre during a meeting Monday, according to an EBID official.

"We increased it to 12 inches based upon what's in storage (in upstream reservoirs) right now," said EBID Manager Gary Esslinger. "There could be another increase in June and probably another one in July, based on what comes in in the run-off."

In addition, farmers in the Hatch area are slated to get the first irrigation water deliveries on Monday. The central and southern portion of the district won't start irrigation until May 15; water orders can be placed by growers in these areas on May 8, according to the district.

Farmers in the Hatch area met with EBID officials on Tuesday in a growers' informational meeting for the 2017 irrigation season.

Engineering consultant Phil King described the current water outlook, as well as critical groundwater information. He pointed out that El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1's decision to start irrigation early this year benefits EBID as they have "paid the cost of wetting up the river this time." He reminded farmers there's more efficiency in water delivery with a larger volume of water ordered at one time.

"The faster we run, the more water you get," he said. "When we come on Monday, be ready with your orders."

An acre-foot contains 326,000 gallons of water, enough to cover 1 acre to a depth of 12 inches or 1 foot.

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King said there is still a lot of snow in the Rocky Mountains that will become spring runoff to feed the Rio Grande. That will help groundwater, which farmers have been using in recent years because of a drought, recover.

"We appear to be getting on the right side of the system," he said.

King discussed the interconnected nature of surface water and groundwater with outtakes from a recent groundwater report. The groundwater system had gained water by the end of 2016.

Growers were given another overview of the DROP program, which is essentially a voluntary forbearance program allowing farmers to provide a portion of their allotted water to municipal and industrial users at market price.

Steve Hernandez, water law specialist and attorney for the district, discussed the "flood of litigation" EBID has faced over the years. He described how key legal cases have affected the district, according to the news release. He said the district is in a better position legally than it has been in 40 years.

Hernandez said the district has to make sure irrigation infrastructure stays updated. EBID is working with multiple organizations trying to ensure that the new presidential administration understands that some of the money earmarked for infrastructure needs to go into agriculture water infrastructure. Elephant Butte Dam is 100 years old, something the district should be concerned about, the news release states. And there should be a concerted effort to make money available to irrigation districts across the West, he said.

"The failure of the dam in California recently highlights that we’ve ignored major water infrastructure in this country and we can’t ignore it anymore," he said.

Engineer Zack Libbin closed the meeting with a maintenance and engineering update. The Rincon WaterSmart WHEN project, which has been designed to save 7,000 acre-feet of water per year, has installed piping on about 10,000 feet of the Rincon lateral to date. This year will see another 3,000 feet of pipe installed, as well as solar panels to control pumps operating out of Wasteway 18. In addition, a planned water habitat energy nexus will be developed this year as part of that project.

The district plans grower’s meetings for the central and south areas of the district in a few weeks.